


the day before

by richurro



Series: 500 [9]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Acting, Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, M/M, Prompt Fic, joshler - Freeform, over 1000 words, theyre both actors yay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 01:05:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18680989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/richurro/pseuds/richurro
Summary: prompt: use “the swap” as inspiration





	the day before

**Author's Note:**

> 05.01-02.19

“Oh, I was just cleaning up,” Tyler starts, nervously placing his script down onto the table as Josh makes an appearance, “so we can, uh, rehearse,”

Josh scoffs. “Yeah, okay. Sure,”

Tyler bites his lip, backing away from the table and looking Josh in the eye. The tension in the air is thick as Tyler parts his lips to speak.

“Can…Can we start?” He asks timidly.

“I don’t know, can we?” Josh retorts.

Tyler frowns. “I—I suppose?”

Josh huffs in annoyance. “No, we don't have to. It’s not needed.”

Tyler scrunches his eyebrows. “What—What do you mean?”

Josh averts his eyes.

“What do you mean?” He asks again, voice cracking. He can’t find it in himself to feel embarrassed.

“Listen, you were out for an entire week,” Josh begins, sounding frustrated.

“Josh, I explained that,” Tyler says.

Josh crosses his arms, still not sparing Tyler a glance. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter anyway,”

Tyler shakes his head, smiling wobbly. “What, did you replace me or something?”

Josh ducks his head, going quiet. Tyler’s smile drops. “Oh my god, you replaced me,” he gapes in disbelief. He can feel warm tears well up in his eyes as Josh looks up at him, jaw set.

“Juries are tomorrow, Tyler! You were out of town! Not only that, but you don’t know your lines and all your bookwork was half assed! What did you expect me to do?!” He defends, a knit in his brow.

“I expected you to understand!” Tyler counters, sounding nothing far from distressed.

Josh scoffs again. “Well, I don’t! You _know_ how much this class means to me! This assignment can make or break me! I had to do _something!_ I couldn’t even reach you! I didn’t even know you were out of town until you came back! I did _everything_ I could to make this work! I left you tons of voicemails, dozens of messages, and even visited your bitchy girlfriend, who you _know_ I can’t stand to ask about you! You disappeared during the most important week of the semester and it’s like you don’t even care! So forgive me if I don’t understand why you ditched me!”

Tyler sniffs and wipes his eyes with his sleeve. “I’m—I’m so sorry,” he says sincerely.

Josh rolls his eyes. “Sure,”

Tyler wraps his arms around himself and lets his gaze fall onto the floor. “I—I didn’t tell you ‘cuz I didn’t want you to worry…Josh—I…I had to go back to Columbus.”

Josh furrows, arms falling to his sides, anger instantly dissipating. “Columbus? Why?”

“My…My mom got worse…She—She passed away a few days ago…” Tyler whispers, never once moving his eyes from where they were focused on a gum wrapper on the floor. Josh goes quiet.

“I—I left just to check on her and I was going to come right back, really, I swear…But then—” Tyler shrinks in on himself, “I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry. I stayed a couple more days because of my family and—and of _course_ I knew how important this was to you so—so I came back. I—I thought—I thought I could—”

“Tyler, no. I’m sorry,” Josh apologizes, walking over to pull Tyler into his chest, “I’m so sorry I yelled at you like that,”

Tyler wastes no time in hugging him back, fingers gripping tightly onto his shirt as he sobs. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer the phone. I’m so sorry—”

“No, it’s okay. You don’t need to apologize, I’m sorry,” Josh hushes, rubbing circles into his back.

Before Tyler could enjoy the gesture, Josh pulls away, setting his hands on his shoulders and giving a comforting squeeze. Tyler laughs shakily in spite of himself.

“I guess you guys will need the room to rehearse, huh?” He asks awkwardly, wiping away any stray tears. A flash of guilt crosses Josh’s face.

“Yeah…”

Tyler shakes his head and clears his throat, completely pulling away from. “It’s fine. I should—I should go,”

Josh clears his own throat, ducking his head and sticking his hands into his pockets. “Um, yeah, right.”

Tyler sends Josh a teary eyed smile as he makes his leave. “I’ll see you later,” he says offhandedly, embarrassed about what had happened.

Josh nods. “Oh, uh, yeah. See you,”

Tyler then waves weakly, walking off to stand behind the stage curtain before walking back a few seconds later. He joins his boyfriend in the middle of the stage and wraps an arm around his waist, Josh snaking one around his shoulder in response.

“Thank you,” they smile simultaneously bowing slightly at the audience along with their acting teachers.

Their classmates cheer in delight as their acting teacher stands from his seat, a huge grin splitting his face. Once the audience dies down, he speaks up, astonished.

“Alright, first of all, Tyler, are you okay?” Mr. Way asks. Tyler laughs and nods, wiping his eyes.

“Okay, good. Second off all, I am so pleasantly confused? Tyler, I only ever seen you play louder, standoffish characters, and Josh, I only ever see you play sweeter, quieter characters. This was so different for me and I love it. I think that was the best work I’ve seen from both of you this year,”

Tyler and Josh share glances, grinning.

“Iero? Thoughts?” Mr. Way asks, turning to the other acting teacher. Mr. Iero looks down at the jury binder on his desk before looking back up at the two students.

“Wonderful job, boys. Execution was great, everything was memorized, volume was perfect, and from the looks of it, your bookwork is all here. Uh, I like how you incorporated the prompt not in your scene but in the way you decided to perform it. I love the character switch, I think that was a good change of pace for me and you. Uh, I hope you two decide to play more roles like this instead of your usual ones; Tyler, you have a great sense of vulnerability and Josh, you are perfectly capable of yelling so don’t be afraid to. Uh, I also, I can ignore half-assed but I will _have_ to deduct points for bitchy. Other than that, I think you guys did great, you should be proud of yourselves. I can’t wait see more from both of you,” Mr, Iero says,

Tyler nods. “Thank you,” he smiles as the class erupts into another applause. He and Josh make their way offstage and back to their seats.

“Thank God, I was so fucking nervous,” Tyler beams, “I thought they would hate it.”

Josh shakes his head. “Of course not, you did amazing,” he says quietly.

“ _You_ did amazing,”

“Sorry I yelled at you,”

Tyler grins. “I know how you can make it up to me,”

Josh doesn’t even ask. He leans forward and kisses him softly.

**Author's Note:**

> okay storytime: i was so so nervous about the first day of juries yesterday bc my jury binder wasnt ready so i didnt want to perform so i wrote this to calm me down but!! listen!! i ended up not going and now i half a full week to get everything done now!! life is good!!


End file.
